Happy New Year! There are so many things I have loved about the past year.
• Chelsea graduated 6th grade and started Junior High, playing on her Junior High soccer team while also playing for her club team and taking more responsibility with her grades and schoolwork, doing well with both! She has made new friends at school and her club team, and she has served many times in the temple doing proxy baptisms for those who have passed away. She is a hard worker, a faithful disciple of Christ, and a wonderful daughter.
•Alexa has begun a new accelerated program at school in fifth grade that is more demanding than usual, but contrary to what she may think sometimes, she is doing great! She performed in her ballet studios Spring production and participated in a summer ballet intensive with her cousin in Utah, but decided after the Halloween Spooktacular that she was ready to try something new. So she began taking tennis lessons and has been loving it ever since! Alexa is a patient and forgiving little girl who is always thinking of others and is often the comforter in our home. We are so grateful for her.
•Barrett was baptized this year! He has learned a lot this year as we have studied the Book of Mormon at church and home. He’s also begun the accelerated program at school in third grade and is enjoying the more challenging mathematics. He loved spending time with his cousins this summer when we went to visit Utah for soccer camps and a family reunion. His club soccer team has changed this year with an *almost* entirely new set of teammates and new coaches, and it has been such a blessing! We are grateful to have another team that feels like family, and the boys have learned and grown so much this season. I am always so impressed when I watch him play and see that he clearly understands spacing and working as a team, then using his foot skills to dribble past the defenders to the goal. Basketball this fall? Well… he had fun! 😅 He’s a goof at home and loves that he gets to share a room with his little bro. He’s always making us laugh and is a skilled gamer as well - always after school and friends.
•Elise graduated Pre-school and started Kindergarten this year! She enjoys her teacher and class and has been picking up on reading and writing quickly. She especially loves decorating her school work with colors and pictures! She is quite the little artist! She participated in the Halloween ballet Spooktacular with her sister, but decided ballet wasn't for her either shortly after that. She played on a rec soccer team coached by her dad, and seemed pretty promising... when she wasn't goofing off! She loves playing with her brothers and sisters and her neighborhood friends when she can.
•Brenden is coming up on his second birthday in April this year and has changed a lot! He started walking in February and is running the whole house, now! Of course, with that confidence and independence has come some bumps, scrapes, lesions, and bruises, two lesions happening of them happening just a month apart from each other! Luckily, we have doctors in the family (my brother, and a soccer family dad) who were able to help us out. Brenden certainly keeps us on our toes, but he is such a sweet and cute little guy despite his two little scars on the bridge of his nose and just an inch or two above that between his brows. We all love Brenden so much! It has been fun to see how all his older siblings play and take care of him. He is such a lucky little guy to have so many people love him so much! And he is the best little parrot, repeating whatever you say last, and communicating himself pretty effectively (and loudly at times). We have high hopes for him athletically since he likes to kick and throw things all the time. He's currently stacking play-dohs and kicking them down, then throwing them as I write this.
We got the opportunity in March to visit my sister Debbie and her family in Maryland and it is one of the best vacations our family has ever taken, but not because of all the amazing museums or monuments. Aunt Debbie is the best hostess! The kids loved roaming the forest that is her backyard, looking for old Civil War artifacts and climbing in their new tree-house and roasting marshmallows over the fire pit. It was so relaxing and fun and I don't think my kids really argued or fought the entire time! It was glorious.
By-the-way, if you want to know what $70 ice cream looks like, this is it. Note to self: Never purchase from food trucks in Washington DC.
And then there's everything to do with Soccer. Soccer took us to Utah for BYU Sports camps and California for a tournament, and it's become my new part-time job taking photos and making videos for the team and managing the social media accounts. It's a lot of work, but I feel so appreciated by our team and I know these photos and videos are really going to come in handy when these girls start applying to colleges. I've also been able to market my experience to other parents with soccer athletes and am considering diving into this new market. I'll keep you posted.
Andrew continues to work with Rovin Capital as a financial advisor and playing soccer when he has the time. Brenden absolutely adores him and it fills my heart with joy to see them playing and snuggling together. I am so grateful to have married a man who has been a wonderful husband and has become a wonderful father to our children.
We're looking forward to another incredible year full of adventure and growth. Chelsea and her teammates get the unique opportunity to travel to Spain in March to train with BCN Pro Soccer and Andrew and I get to go with her! I'm also enrolling myself in ballet and continuing my photography education, and our family has plans to visit Yosemite, Utah, and Oceanside. It's going to be amazing!
I'm excited, and I'm grateful for all of these incredible opportunities we have, for the people who hire me and entrust their family history to me, making our goals and dreams financially possible, and I'm grateful to Andrew who works so hard to provide this comfortable, stable, active, and adventurous life for our family. Most of all, I am thankful to our Heavenly Father who is the source of all good things and is with us at all times. That is something I have come to understand better this year, that Heavenly Father is not sitting on this throne watching us experience life thinking "well, she got through this trial, let's hope she's strong enough for the next one." Rather, He is with us during the trial, holding us up and walking with us through it all. He loves His children, and He will never abandon us. I feel that this is true. It feels good.
Moroni 7: 12;13
12. Wherefore, all things which are good cometh of God... that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God.
I can't believe another year has wrapped itself up. I've seen 35 new years now and I am grateful that I can look back and say that most of them have been good with just a couple that were darkened with sadness. I know that is a gift, and I am grateful for that blessing in my life, and I pray that I can show my gratitude to the Lord through the light that I can be to others. I pray that my heart will be a little more open, a little more welcoming, and a little more loving. I pray that my smile will be a little quicker, a little warmer, and my arms more ready to offer a hug. I pray that when others meet me, they will feel welcome, safe, and accepted, and that for the time that they are with me to feel lighter. I pray that I can be that for others.
Happy New Year to any who may be reading this, and God bless you with light this year!
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